The Midnight Mistress
by znk99fg7
Summary: Iron Man's met his match; a mysterious and cunning thief. What happens when Tony tries to bring her to justice for the crimes she has commited and starts to fall in love with her?... TxP! R&R please! XD
1. The New Girl In Town

**The Midnight Mistress**

**This is my first IMAA fic and I hope you like it! Now, I'm not going to hide the villain's identity at all, but I'm not actually going to say (or write if you like) it until the big finale.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own IMAA.**

**Though any OC's I throw in here and there **_**are**_** mine – so hands off!**

**Enjoy! :D**

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**Chapter 1**

**The New Girl In Town**

"I am _never_ stepping inside another museum as long as I live!" Tony exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis as he walked down a flight of stairs which lead to a new exhibit.

The whole Tomorrow Academy had only been back a day, after what was supposed to of been a one week break, though had been turned into a three week holiday after a health inspector had spotted a termite running across the kitchen floor. And oh boy, he was mad.

Tony and Rhodey had stayed in New York. Though mainly because Rhodey's mother had a ton of work to get through and because Tony had refused to leave the Iron Man suit. _Of course._

But, much to both boys surprise, Pepper had decided to go back to Ireland for a while. Well at least, that was where she was supposed to be. She had been speaking so fast before she'd boarded the plane that they hadn't caught a word the hazel eyed girl had said.

Rhodey shot his friend a look, but refrained from saying anything. Instead, he rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly; knowing nothing on Earth would be able to convince the brown haired teenager otherwise. Well, that wasn't exactly true. There was one certain person who could convince – or should I say _force_? – anyone into thinking anything. Though normally it was because she wouldn't shut up until she got what she wanted – and even then, she'd keep talking.

"You know," Rhodey started, "The last time Pepper visited a museum, she was thrown out for talking."

Tony let out a small laugh, though the fact didn't surprise him. An image of the redhead scurried across his mind. It had been quiet without her for the past few weeks. Even if she _had_ called and texted him and Rhodey frequently. And by frequently, I mean _a lot_.

"When is she getting back here, anyway?" Tony asked as he slipped a small device onto his ear.

"Some time tomor…" Rhodey trailed off when he saw his friend wasn't listening. "...Tomorrow. But first she's gonna fly to the moon and meet up with a bunch of aliens for an old fashioned tea party."

"Yeah, sound's cool."

And of course Tony wasn't listening. Well in a sense he was, but not to his best friend. No, with his new earpiece gadget he had created, he was able to listen in on all the police reports.

Rhodey glanced at the boy who was wearing his trade mark red top. He seemed pretty calm, but let out an _'oooo'_ and winced slightly, before shaking his head.

"Anything interesting?" Rhodey questioned.

"Not really. A cat's gone missing. Some old lady says her plants have been stolen and there's a woman in labour screaming at someone _extremely_ politely down the phone," Tony listed, clearly bored. "No wait. There's someone causing a scene by proposing in the middle of a busy road. And a security gua- HUH?"

Tony stopped dead as he pressed his earpiece firmly against the side of his head to make sure what he was hearing was correct. _'…He's some of machine! He's causing havoc in…'_

"What is it?" Rhodey asked as he stopped just in front of his best friend.

"Trouble," Tony replied slowly as he listened to the end of the call – or at least until the person calling suddenly started screaming in terror. "Got to go!"

"Oh no you don't!" Rhodey muttered as he grabbed Tony's arm just in time. "The armour's been playing lately! It's not safe!"

"Rhodey! Listen to these people!" Tony yelled as he took his earpiece out and threw it at Rhodey. "Do these people sound _safe_?"

Rhodey looked down at the small device he had caught in his hand. He could hear a faint sound of what could clearly be interpreted as chaos. He sighed and reluctantly loosened his grip on his friend's arm.

As soon as he had, Tony turned 'round and darted forward…

… Where he immediately tripped and fell down the stairs before landing on his face.

Rhodey couldn't help but laugh. "Nice going, genius!"

Tony, who after deciding his nose wasn't broken, quickly got up and brushed himself off. He turned to give Rhodey a dirty look, before running off.

Funny, at that moment in time, he didn't have a single clue what he was getting himself into.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Iron Man was at the disaster location within minutes. He hovered just above what looked like an ordinary street – except for the fact that there were loads people screaming at the top of their lungs and running all over the place like lunatics.

Inside the suit, Tony chuckled slightly as he remembered the night before Pepper had left for Europe. The three musketeers had watched a movie and Pepper had said that the people in it – who were acting very similar to the ones metres below Tony – acted like headless chickens.

Why he would think of her at this point in time, he had no idea.

"Tony…. Tony…? T_ooooooo_ny?" A voice came from within the armour, but naturally the hero ignored it. "TONY!"

"_What?!_" Tony hissed as he looked at the scene below. "Man, you got back to the lab fast!"

"Can you see anything?" Rhodey asked, puzzled as he watched one of the numerous monitor screens back at the laboratory.

Tony shook his head, but remained silent. People were running for their lives, but from what? Iron Man tried all sorts of things to try and get visual on whatever it was, but just couldn't.

Tony let out a frustrated groan as his sensors, once again, picked up nothing.

"No! It's like this guy just disap- AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

"TONY!"

Iron Man was sent flying towards the ground before he even knew what had hit him. He didn't have time to react. So for the second time that day, our hero landed flat on his face – except this time it hurt a _hell_ of a lot more.

"Ow……" Tony groaned as several alarms went off in his suit. _'I could have done with those a few seconds ago!!!!'_

Behind him, he could hear menacing laughter and rolled his eyes. Well he didn't recognise his new enemy's voice, that was for sure. _'Well I'll take Mrs Wilson's advice and 'make a new friend'.'_ Tony thought sarcastically.

"So what do you call yourself?" Iron Man asked as he stood up and turned to face his foe.

Tony had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing out load. Was this guy for real?!

He was dressed in what looked to be a tartan, dirty green coloured kilt which was _far_ too short and showed _way_ too much for anybody's liking, complete with a little satchel which had white, curly tassels. On top, the man was wearing a cream coloured, frilly blouse Tony swore not even a deranged woman would wear on Halloween. On his feet, the stranger wore smart, black and _incredibly_ shiny shoes with socks that stopped just below his knees. And to top it all off, he was wearing a light brown beret with a big red pompom on top.

'_You have GOT to be kidding me!'_

"Me? Why… I'm Magnet Man!"

"…"

Silence. You can't really blame Tony – even if he is a genius – for having a bit of trouble taking in _that_ information. Luckily, though, he snapped back into reality.

"Magnet Man? You couldn't have come up with something better then _that_?"

The man, who Tony could now see was short, chubby and had a receding hairline, stretched out his arms. Tony frowned, wondering what was supposed to happen.

Suddenly, the _tinniest_ magnets popped out of each arm and landed in each of the villain's palms. He grinned to himself, before looking back at Iron Man.

Tony blinked, wondering if he was having hallucinations. _'He CAN'T be serious…'_

"What you gonna do? Flick them at me? Oh, I'm _so_ scared," Iron Man mocked and as usual, he was far too cocky for this own good.

Magnet Man sniffed and promptly threw the two small, red objects at the suit. Iron Man glanced down at them as they stopped and hovered inches away from him. He glanced up to see his new enemy holding up five fingers… Then four… It took Tony a moment to realise the man was counting… Downwards…

A few seconds later, he put down his last remaining finger.

Thus, Iron Man was once again thrown backwards – only this time through _eight_ brick walls. It took the teen hero a moment to realise what had happened, for yet again, he hadn't had time to react.

Iron Man had left eight comical holes through whatever building he had been sent through, all resembling the next. Magnet Man stood at one end, smirking triumphantly and Iron Man was in a heap of rubble at the other.

"Tony!" Rhodey's worried voice came from within the armour.

The teenager groaned as he tried to move, only to have a 'low power alarm' go off in his armour.

"Tony get back to the lab!" Rhodey all but screamed.

"Oh common' Rhodey!" Tony replied as confident as ever. "You've seen this guy! I can take him!"

"Tony, you've barely got enough power to get back to the lab!" His best friend shot back. "And this guy may look like a Scotsman gone wrong, but he's nuts! Get back here, now!"

"Rhodey… I'm loosing connection," Tony simply replied, before disabling his communications system.

"You think you can take me, boy?" Magnet Man sneered as once again, small magnets 'popped' out of him. "Well then, I hope you like pain!"

Only this time, there were about ten times as many. Iron Man raised his head just in time to see the villain laugh mercilessly and toss them in his direction.

'_Oh crap…'_

Tony prepared himself for the inevitable impact… But it never came.

Every single one of the magnets was shot down by bolts of what looked like dark emerald fire which instantly destroyed them. Tony's eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he saw what had happened.

"W-W-WHAT?!" Magnet Man stuttered, furious as he looked 'round for who had robbed him of the infamous Iron Man. "Show yourself! For you are in for a world of pain, you little pest!"

Suddenly an incredibly bright, pure white ray, which had the shape of an enormous boomerang hit the villain and wrapped itself around him. Magnet Man shrieked and squirmed, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break whatever power was holding him.

"If you like pain so much, try wearing six inch stilettos," a woman's voice came.

A moment later, the click of heels alerted Tony to the fact she had landed in the street outside. He lifted his gaze and gasped.

A woman stood before him, dressed in a long, black trench coat which draped loosely down to her knees. The coat was open and on the inside, she wore a skin tight, completely black jumpsuit with a few belts which had numerous things attached to them. On her feet she wore coal coloured boots which about a three inch heel.

Tony narrowed his eyes in an attempt to see her face, but when his mysterious savoir turned towards him, all he could see were her eyes – which even from a few metres away, stood out. The rest of her face was covered in a sort of handkerchief which covered the entire lower half. Her shoulder length hair was deep, forest green with black streaks. She blinked at the teen hero, the emerald flames which a second ago had shot from her left hand ceased to exist at a flick of her wrist. She nodded in his direction, before taking off.

It was only after this incident that Tony remembered she had been carrying something; a priceless art piece from the museum he had visited earlier that day. A sculpture to be exact.

So there it was. She was no hero, but a thief.

A thief who's eyes Tony just couldn't place.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

**So… Did you like it?!**

**As I was writing this chapter, I thought about maybe a GenexOC and perhaps even a RhodeyxOC…**

**Now show that grey/green button some love and review, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD**


	2. She's Back

**The Midnight Mistress**

**Disclaimer: I do not own IMAA.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**She's Back**

Rhodey glanced across at his best friend as they made their way through the Tomorrow Academy school entrance. The fact that the infamous Tony Stark was actually _early_ for a change earned him a view stares from students and teachers alike. Ever since Tony had found out this 'saviour' from the other day was in fact a villain, he'd been down in the dumps. He had barely touched his food (which yes, I guess is not completely out of the ordinary for the teenage genius, but it's still not good), done any school work or ranted about how he was going to take down Stane. Heck! He hadn't even tried to upgrade the armour! Needless to say, Rhodey was worried.

"Tony, man this isn't healthy!" Rhodey finally said as they reached their lockers.

Tony simply sighed as he leant against his locker. He slipped a small, silver gadget onto his ear and listened to the police reports whilst Rhodey got the books he needed for the next few lessons from his locker.

"I just don't understand how she destroyed those magnets," Tony muttered, referring to the mysterious villain.

Rhodey slammed his locker shut with such vigour that it surprised his friend slightly and momentarily got his attention. "That's what you've been brooding about all this time?!"

"Er... Yeah."

Rhodey narrowed his eyes at the teenage genius wondering whether to hit him over the head or simply walk away in a dramatic fashion. He chose hitting Tony over the head and would have done if he hadn't been tackled into a hug by a half sprinting, half leaping blur of red and pink.

"TONY!!! I've missed you! Oh, and you too Rhodey! I mean how could I not miss both of you? 'Cause if I only missed one of you that would be unfair on the other one and I just couldn't do that. Well I could, but that wouldn't be very nice and I'm genially a nice person. At least I think so and so does Jasper, but he doesn't really count 'cause he was the one that almost made the boat sink on the lake which scared me half to death and I'm sure he didn't mean to blow a hole in the bottom of the boat but that's just my opinion and-"

"Can't.... _BREATH_ PEPPER!" A now very red faced Tony managed to shout.

"What? Oh, sorry!" Pepper grinned as she released her sufficating hold on the brown haired teenager.

Rhodey raised an eyebrow as the genius started coughing and trying to get some air into his lungs and tried not to laugh as Tony's attempts to stay conscious were _completely_ ignored by the hazel eyed girl. In fact, she didn't even notice.

"I'm guessing you had a good time, then?" Rhodey grinned. Why hadn't he ever thought about strangling Tony? It seemed pretty effective…

"Oh it was _amazing_! You should have been there! There was this boat-"

"We know!" Tony wheezed, as he straightened up and placed a hand on Rhodey's shoulder for support. "You _might_ have mentioned it a... er... _few_ times in your calls."

"Oops," Pepper smiled, though secretly thought she had restrained herself a lot from calling her two best friends whilst she was away. After all, she had _only_ called each of them about forty times a day – max… OK, maybe fifty.

* * *

"Where's Tony?" Pepper asked as she stepped out onto the roof at break time.

"Oil spillage off the coast of Venezuela," Rhodey replied, as the red haired girl sat down on the wall next to him.

"So what happened yesterday, then? From what I heard, Iron Man got his butt kicked by a fashion victim and was saved by a girl! Man, I wished I had been there! Was it funny? No, of course it wasn't funny! How could I say a thing like that? He probably got hurt and his eyes might need some serious counselling after 'cause from what I heard that guy's kilt thing was _way_ too short. Which actually, if you think about it, is quite funny – but disturbing at the same time. Rho-"

"Pepper!" Rhodey yelled as he managed to get a word in edgeways as Pepper finally paused a split second to breath.

"What?" She blinked, then her eyes widened and she bit her lip. "Oh…"

"What?" Rhodey asked as she put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him sympathetically.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable by bringing the subject up."

"Huh? Why would Magnet Man make me feel uncomfortable?"

"It's OK," Pepper smiled, taking her friend's hands in hers, before looking him in the eye. "The kilt was short enough to see up, wasn't it?"

Pepper's last sentence took Rhodey a few moments to figure out. "No! Grosse! NO!!! Why would you even think that?!"

"It's OK, Rhodey. I have the number for a good shrink. He's supposed to be a miracle worker. I'm sure he can help you," Pepper told him.

"But I didn't see anything! Nothing happened!" Rhodey exclaimed, standing up and putting a good few feet inbetween him and Pepper.

"You're in denial," she simply replied.

"I'm am not in denial!"

"That's what someone in denial would say."

"Wha-? N- Loo- Just no! No!" Rhodey stuttered, trying to think of what to say, but luckily the bell rang, signalling lessons were to start in five minutes. "Saved by the bell!"

"His number's in my phone. Wait, let me look… for… it…" Pepper muttered as she took her mobile out and started to search through her contacts.

"Wha- What?!" Rhodey took a deep breath and came to the conclusion that he would deal with his _slightly_ on the mad side friend later. And with that decided, he sprinted off to Chemistry.

Pepper glanced up and bit her lip to stop herself from laughing as she saw one of her best friends running away from her like she was a man eating lion. She grinned as she put her phone into one of her pockets and stood up. Oh, messing with that guy was such fun…

* * *

Meanwhile…

After rescuing the crew of the ship the oil had escaped from, Iron Man had then set about trying to stop the oil from polluting the surrounding ocean area and killing thousands of different species of marine life – which, included _air lifting_ some sort of _whale_ to a safer location. And let's be honest here, whales are bloody heavy creatures!

But all's well that end well as the old saying goes. Iron Man saved the day… again. Though this time he did get a _bit_ dirtier then normal…

Tony moved through the laboratory, his brown hair still wet from the shower he had taken when he'd gotten back. Luckily, Rhodey's mom hadn't been home, so he'd avoided an interrogation. Well, he was safe until the Tomorrow Academy decided to call and ask about his little disappearing act. Though he was sure either Rhodey or Pepper would have covered for him… somehow…

As Tony walked past the main computer he had built, the voice system he had installed spoke. "Code words found. Police, thief, robbery."

"When?" Tony asked, rushing to the screen. Why hadn't he heard anything about this sooner?

"Tomorrow."

"Did she st- HUH?" Tony stopped for a moment, wondering if he had heard right. "Repeat."

"Tomorrow."

"You're telling me the police know this thief's gonna strike _tomorrow_?" The teenage genius inquired. "Really?"

Well his faith in the police is staggering!

"Show me some evidence."

Another browser appeared on the screen. On it was a copy of a card that had been sent to the police earlier that day. The message on it read:

_I will be come for the 'Drops of Happiness'_

_12 o'clock tomorrow night_

_Beware Banks_

_The Midnight Mistress_

Tony pulled up a seat and sat down, before he continued to read the rest of the police reports, where he found all the answers he needed for tomorrow night.

"Looks like I've got a thief to catch."

* * *

Sorry the update took so long! Please forgive me!

Anyway…

_XxThe Best Damn ThingxX – _Thank-you. I have answered your question in my summary. ;P

_MadroxMR – _I'm thrilled you liked the first chapter. I hope you like this one just as much.

_WriterHorse32 –_ Thank-you!

_Finny-Kun Goddess –_ I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

_RenaissanceGirl14 –_ Thanks. I hope this chapter lived up to that 'potential' you say this story has.

Now everyone that's reviewed… Take a cookie! *hands 'round a plate of cookies*

Thank-you for reading!

Please R&R!


End file.
